In this condo-conversion design for St. Luke's Evangelical Lutheran Church, the green panels represent religious stained-glass windows the developer will remove. Rendering by ROART via the Landmarks Preservation Commission

But condo buyers can reinstall them

By Lore Croghan

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Listen carefully. This gets complicated.

On Tuesday, the city Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) unanimously approved a plan by developer Brookland Capital to remove four stained-glass windows made by famous artist Louis Comfort Tiffany and three stained-glass windows designed by important glass-maker J&R Lamb Studios from a Clinton Hill Historic District church it's converting into condos.

But some — or maybe even all — the historic windows could possibly show up again at shuttered St. Luke's Evangelical Lutheran Church after it and an adjacent parish house are turned into an eight-unit condo complex.

Brookland Capital will give condo purchasers the option to reinstall the “famous-maker windows” in their apartments, Rick Azar, a consultant for the developer, told the LPC at a public meeting at its Lower Manhattan headquarters.

This was the second time the commission weighed Brookland Capital's condo-conversion plans for St. Luke's.

At a public hearing in December, Azar had told the LPC the developer would try to “find the right home” for the Tiffany and J&R Lamb Studios windows, which are all religiously themed.

At that hearing, LPC Chairwoman Meenakshi Srinivasan instructed him and architecture firm ROART to consider leaving the high-profile windows in place and also to devise a plan for restoring and preserving the windows at some other location.

St. Luke's Tiffany windows will not be sold on the open market

Here are other elements of the plan they came up with, which Azar spelled out at Tuesday's public meeting:

* The developer will not sell the Tiffany and J&R Lamb Studios windows on the open market.

* The developer will do outreach to religious institutions, museums and historic venues to try to place the seven “famous-maker windows,” in case condo purchasers don't want them.

* The developer will draw up an annual report about the condition and whereabouts of the seven windows.